Return To Killarney - Backpacking Day 1

We had spent almost an entire year planning for this trip. We had dried out our food using a dehydrator and we had packed and unpacked our back packs probably about a hundred times to test out what would weigh less and what we should take out and what we should put back in. We had poured over "Jeff's Map"  (best map ever! This guy put over 2000 hours into this online, printable map...check it out) We had called the park back in April to reserve all the interior spots that we intended to camp on for this trip. We were all set to do our 80 km backpacking trip in the interior of Killarney Provincial Park. 

Along for the trip was my mother, my sister Heather, my niece Kendra, my nephew Devin and myself. We are all avid campers and canoe travelers. My parents have often gone on long 10 day portage trips. We thought we were prepared for the journey ahead but we were very wrong and we had quite the eye opener. Backpacking is very different from tenting or even from canoeing. We learned a whole lot very quickly and we had quite an adventure. 

We arrived at the park at about 4 pm and registered at the park desk. Then we headed down to the main beach where the LaCloche  Trail Head begins on the west side of the campground.  We were going to end the hiking trip at the east end of the campground. Since we had arrived in two vehicles, we dropped our stuff off at the west end, drove down to the east end and parked one of the cars there and then drove back down to the bridge at the west end again. That way we would have a car to get into when we came out of the bush all tired and not wanting to walk anymore.

​Our first destination was to make it to interior campsite H6 on Cave Lake before nightfall which was roughly at 8:45 pm.  That meant going 8 km in about 5 hours. .

The next day would be out biggest day. Since we had been unable to reserve anything closer, our next site after H6 would be H 23 which was about 20 km the next day. After that H35, H38, 2 nights on H46, H50 and then out of the bush the day after H50. We knew reaching H23 would be taxing but we figured once we got that out of the way then we could enjoy the rest of the trip and we were really looking forward to spending two nights on H46 which was on Bunny Rabbit Lake. The Killarney Park store sold us some very nice waterproof maps of the trails and we had all our sites circled. 

And so we began. Right away I thought we may be carrying too much weight. We were each carrying close to 40 pounds or so. But it was too late now. I thought it was going to be tough, but doable.  One of the things I realized almost immediately was that with a heavy pack on your back it is much more difficult to take pictures and to really enjoy the scenery around you. You are too busy concentrating on where your feet are and trying not to trip over rocks,roots and branches. 

The first part of the hike was quite nice and the paths weren't too bad. There were even some helpful boardwalks in a number of places. 

After the first hour or so though the paths became less groomed and the vegetation grew more wildly. 

And eventually the paths turned into rocky paths or a combination of roots, vegetation and rocks all in one.  There were rarely any smooth flat surfaces on the trail anymore. At one point I was up ahead of everyone else and I rested on one of the rocky outcrops as I waited for them to catch up. As I lay looking up at the sky a little humming bird came flitting by. Too fast for the camera though. 

To top it all off, it was an extremely hot day. We would have been sweating even without carrying the weight of our backpacks. We became very thirsty very fast. I was amazed at how quickly we went through the drinks we were each carrying with me. I had brought some pop with me in a reusable water bottle and I polished that off in no time.  By the time we had gone about an hour we finally made it to H1 and I was dismayed that it had taken us that long to get there. At H2 I thought were were at H3 and was disappointed when I realized that H3 was still a long ways off. After about 2 hours or so of hiking we made it to H3. We took a bit of a break here because we were tired and we really needed some water. 

​That was when I got to see the Platypus Water Filter in action. When you are travelling in places where there is no clean water readily available this thing is "The Bees Knees"!  You fill one end up with water from a pond or stream and hang it in a tree. The water trickles through a filter and then goes into a clean reservoir bag that you can then pour into your drinking cups and bottles. 

It was amazing to think that the water we were about to drink came from this lake where the beaver and fish were swimming and hadn't gone through a city water treatment plant and wasn't coming from a tap and that we weren't going to be sick from it. The water wasn't the coldest, but it was definitely drinkable. I don't even like water but at this point we were so thirsty that even I was drinking the water. (and anyone who knows me, that is saying a lot). 

We had been anxious to get to H3 because we knew this was about half way to the site we would be staying at for the night. It was a beautiful spot and we couldn't wait to see our spot. Just past H3 (and H4 which was right across from it) was a beautiful little open area along the path over looking the lake and I thought to myself "would be nice to just camp here for the night", but I kept going. 

​The next section was to cross over a beaver dam to get to the path on the other side. It wasn't until later that Devin told me that there was a path around the beaver dam and that I didn't have to walk across the top of it to get to the other side.  Oh well, it was fun crossing it without falling in. 

Just past the beaver dam we came to a rock that I now call 'Turtle Rock". The reason for this is because going up it is fairly steep (the first step is about waist height) and the only way I could go up it was to crawl the first part on my hands and knees. I got only half way up when the weight of my pack got unbalanced and I fell over sideways and couldn't get back up (much like a turtle that is on it's back with it's legs flailing in the air). And so there I was when Heather and Kendra came around the corner. They laughed and laughed at me but finally they helped me up and I was able to continue on. 

By this time it is about 6 p.m. We figured that we were doing pretty good. We were half way there and we still had about 3 more hours of daylight left. We did this leg of the route in 2 hours so we figured that it would take about 2 more hours to get to the camp and then we would have about an hour to set up camp before dark.  Devin had already forged on ahead by this point so Kendra went on to catch up with him. By this time Heather's heels were starting to blister. She had worn her boots around the house for a week before the trip to break them in and hadn't had any problems with them so she was very surprised by this. This of course slowed her down considerably. The weight of the packs were also taking their toll on us. My mom stopped for a rest and told us to go on and that she would catch up with us later. She said when we made it to the camp to just have some coffee water ready for her and she would be happy. So we carried on without her. I was looking forward to seeing the sunset on the lake at our campsite. Soon we were entering some densely forested areas and it dawned on me that our scheduling of daylight was going to be a bit off. What we hadn't taken into consideration is that when you are in the bush, the thick trees will block out much of the sunlight so it will get dark much faster than the time sunset is scheduled for. But we figured that was OK because Devin and Kendra would already be there and would help us set up when we arrived. If we had to set up in the dark then so be it. Sure enough, the daylight started to disappear with each step we took. Sadly, so did our energy. 

 Heather and I came to a spot with a rock face on our right. We were so very tired so we stopped and leaned against it for awhile. That was when I got an idea. Seemed like a great idea at the time, but once we put it into play we realized it was not such a great idea after all. We figured that if we weren't carrying so much weight we would be able to move faster and it would be easier on us. So the plan was to take our food and the tent and a few other key items out of the packs and carry them, leaving our packs behind. We would take these things to the campsite, have Devin and Kendra set up our tent and make coffee water for my mom while Heather and I went back for the packs and also to meet up with my mom and help her back with her things.

So we proceeded to put our plan into action. Once again we were on our way with lighter weight to carry and we were feeling pretty good about this plan. The next leg of our journey took us down what I would describe as an "avalanche" of sharp small boulders down a very steep hill. We picked our way very carefully down those and were not looking forward to going back up them in the dark on the return trip to get our packs. We walked on for about another 45 minutes until we thought "surely we must be getting close". In front of us was a huge fallen tree that you had to   climb over to continue on. We just wanting to be done now. We stopped and sat on the log for quite a bit and discussed our situation. We didn't know how far we had left to go. We tried calling out for Devin and Kendra to see if maybe they could hear us and would respond which would help us figure out if we had much further. But there was no response from them. We were hoping that they would worry about us and come back to look for us. Then we could send our stuff back with them and go back for the packs. By now it was dark and we had given up hope of reaching the camp tonight. So we formulated a new plan. We decided that we would just camp right here for the night. However, our packs and mom were still behind us. So we would go back for our packs right now, bring them to the fallen log we were sitting on and then camp here. But, there was not much sense carrying all this stuff all the way back with us because that would defeat the purpose. So we left it on the log and turned on the lamp and started to make our way backwards.

We walked for about 10 minutes when we heard mom's emergency whistle. We called out for her saying "We are here! We are coming!' Until finally we met up with her. We told her our plan and how it had gone wrong and what our new plan was. She asked us why we didn't whistle back when she whistled.  We explained that I had left my whistle back with the packs. We had Heather's originally but she had forgot hers back at the log. We asked if she had seen our packs on her way through and she said "yes but they are about a half a kilometer back". At first she had thought we were just off peeing in the woods somewhere. Then she realized that a few things were missing from the packs so she thought someone had gotten hurt and we had to leave our stuff behind to go rescue them. We should have left a note but the paper and pencil I had were buried deep in the pack and I didn't know exactly where it was. And we were so tired that we were making stupid mistake after stupid mistake. 

By this time it is about 10 p.m. So we discussed what we were going to do next. Mom was going to go on ahead and when she reached the campsite she would send Kendra and Devin back to help us. We were going to go back and get our packs and then continue on to the campsite. So she went on ahead and we started our way back. We picked our way through the dark back up the avalanche of small boulders.  We went on for a few minutes after that when Heather finally said. I just can't do it anymore. I can't take another step. (Keep in mind she has huge blisters on the back of her heels).  I wasn't sure what to do. All of our stuff was in two different directions and I didn't want to have to spend the night in the middle of the path with nothing but the lantern and the clothes on our backs.  So I said to her "Are you OK if I leave you here in the dark (we only had the one light) and I go back to get the packs and bring them here. (I would have to make two trips but I figured I still had enough energy in me to do it.) I told her that once I brought the packs back we could go to the log and camp there for the night. She said yes and so I said a little prayer and left her there sitting on the path in the dark with her sore blistered feet and I continued on alone with nothing but the LED lantern and God to guide my way.

The woods are very different in the dark. All I can hear is the jostling of the water bottle that I was carrying, my clunking footsteps on the path, and my laboured breathing and I was glad for it. I didn't want to hear anything else that may be out there in the dark. I was surprisingly unafraid (probably too tired to be) and was more worried about Heather sitting alone in the dark than myself. I tried to go as fast as I could without getting hurt or lost. Eventually I made it back to the packs. I put mine on and was about to go back and then thought to myself "there is absolutely no way I am going to make it all the way back here a second time to get Heather's pack".  So I picked up her pack and stated carrying that too.  It was a struggle and I had to switch hands a lot and drag it in some places. Even if I couldn't get it all the way back I was determined that I was going to get it as close to where Heather was as possible. 

I traveled about half way back to where I had left Heather when suddenly I saw a flickering of light up ahead. It looked like a firefly. It flickered on and off, on and off. As I got closer the light seemed a bit big to be a firefly. "What is that?" I wondered. I entertained the idea of the folklore of a Willow-The-Wisp. Soon I could hear a voice calling out to me and I realized that it was Heather! She had a lighter in her hand and was using it to follow the trail which was why it was flickering on and off. She say the light of my lamp and started calling to me. Her timing was perfect because I was about to give up on her pack and leave it. She said that after she had a good long rest she had found the energy to come find me. Besides, it's no fun sitting alone in the dark when you are not 100% sure of where you are. So we rested for another minute or two and she put her pack back on and we started back for the log. I was hoping that no animals had gotten into our food that we had left there. 

We walked another 10 minutes or so when we saw some lights up ahead and heard some voices. It was Devin and Kendra! We were so happy and so grateful that they had come to help us. They said that they made it to the camp around 9 pm (an hour past when we thought we should have arrived) and that they set up camp and when we still hadn't arrived they came back to look for us. It was about 11 p.m. by this point. They had passed mom along the way, who had told them that we still needed help. Kendra put on Heather's pack and Devin was going to take mine but I told him that I was alright and instead could he just grab my food and stuff at the log. So he went on ahead to pick up my stuff and bring it back to the camp. 

There were the 3 of us now. We asked Kendra how much further past the log we would have to go to get to camp and she said "about 20  minutes" .  We now had hope that we may actually make it to the campsite tonight. Once again we had to pick our way down the avalanche of stones and boulders. After about half an our we made it to the log. My stuff was gone so we knew that Devin had been there. Every once in awhile Kendra would stop to think for a moment on which way to go. Apparently there were some splits in the path and if you weren't careful you could take the wrong path.  We started to hear some weird whistling noises that none of us recognized. To this day we don't have a clue as to what it was. It was a bird of some sort I think. Maybe a grouse or something. 

Just when we were thinking "will this ever end"? We finally heard mom's voice and popped into the open space that was our campsite for the night.  It was midnight but we had finally made it! 

We were exhausted. We sat for a bit on a rock and eased the packs off of our sore shoulders and backs. There was the beautiful sound of an owl hooting in a nearby tree but it was too dark to see it.

We still had to put the tent up and eat supper and hang our food in the tree so that the animals wouldn't get it. Sadly while Devin and Kendra had gone back for us, some animal (probably the owl or a coon) had gotten a hold of Kendra's chicken that she was going to have for supper and ate it. So she snacked on other things and I ate a very squished sandwich for supper. 

At about 1 a.m. we crawled into our tents and went to sleep with the sound of the owl hooting in the trees above us. About an hour later my leg cramped up like a charlie horse from my ankle all the way up to my knee. It was hard as a rock and hurt. It took quite a bit of massaging to get the knot to let go. But after that I went back to sleep and had a good night's sleep. It was a hot night so we slept on top of the sleeping bags with just a sheet on top and with only the screen door between us and the great outdoors.